


Say What You Want

by mastrechef



Category: Naruto, Natsume Yuujinchou | Natsume's Book of Friends
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, BAMF Uzumaki Naruto, Fuuinjutsu, Fuuinjutsu Master Uzumaki Naruto, Gen, Hinoe is a good parent, Kakashi runs from his problems, Naruto finds himself a family, Naruto sees yokai, Smart Uzumaki Naruto, but they catch up to him eventually, eventually, will tag as I go
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-17
Updated: 2020-11-30
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:08:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 16,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24240313
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mastrechef/pseuds/mastrechef
Summary: They lurked in the shadows of the trees and the deeper parts of the Naka River, along unseen forest paths and in secret groves. Most people had no knowledge of their existence, thinking them mere folklore. But a lonely boy saw kindred spirits and reached out a hand in friendship. This changed things.An AU where Naruto can see yokai and their guidance helps him reach his potential much earlier.
Relationships: Dai-nana-han | Team 7 & Hatake Kakashi, Haruno Sakura & Uchiha Sasuke & Uzumaki Naruto, Hatake Kakashi & Madara "Nyanko-sensei", Uzumaki Naruto & Hinoe, Uzumaki Naruto & Madara "Nyanko-sensei"
Comments: 38
Kudos: 391





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> This is something I began casually working on for a while after rewatching Natsume Yuujinchou. I had no idea what to name this so I just used the English title (although not a literal translation) of the song Parle à ta tête by Indila, because it's a great song and seemed fitting.
> 
> Also somewhat inspired by [Give me a landscape made of obstacles](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20133031/chapters/47696377) by [Melise](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Melise/pseuds/Melise)

Iruka frowned, brow wrinkling in concern. A few weeks ago he would have suspected a genjutsu at work, but then again genjutsu wasn’t exactly _his_ area of expertise. The only reason the academy teacher even suspected genjutsu was due to his belief that the child in question didn’t have it in him to sit so still for more than five minutes at a time. Now, it could be the work of someone else; however, no one else had any reason to do such a thing and, while unusual, it would have come as no surprise to find out it was just a prank. A very quiet, non-exploding, non-disruptive, glitter free, and paint free prank, which somehow made it unnerving and planted a growing seed of paranoia in most eye witnesses. Describing the situation like that sounded really extreme and overblown, but the reality was that Naruto’s drastic change in behavior was more than a little jarring.

It was most noticeable at the academy. Outside of class, the loud exuberant knucklehead was still very much present, harrying the odd civilian and otherwise sowing discord and mayhem. On the other hand, the studious and reserved child that currently sat before Iruka was a complete stranger. Whilst he didn’t necessarily pay any more attention to the lessons than he had before all this, he didn’t waste class time by causing a ruckus or picking a fight with Sasuke, nor did he sleep the day away like some honorary Nara. And, miracle of all miracles, Naruto actually deigned to turn in homework assignments. It was honestly astounding. There was a level of maturity and self-awareness to him that had been severely lacking up until the past month.

Of whatever had happened to prompt this change, Naruto hadn’t spoken a word. Anytime Iruka brought it up, Naruto brushed off his concern and quickly distracted him with actual academic questions. As happy as he was for Naruto to be taking his education seriously, every deviation in previous behaviors only served to fuel his worry. Something had to have occurred to have made such a profound effect on his student. If only he knew what.

* * *

Naruto ignored the droning of the teacher’s voice and focused on the pen and paper in front of him, tongue poking out the side of his mouth and a look of intense concentration on his face. He didn’t have anything against Iruka-sensei, far from it in fact, since Iruka-sensei was one of the few who even tried to treat him like a normal kid. But this was loads more interesting than history lessons.

And just what was it that had so captured his attention? Seals. Or rather, in this case, one specific seal, drawn over and over again until he could draw it out consistently as well as flawlessly. For as basic as this particular seal was, seals as a whole were both intricate and delicate, hence the need for repeated practice. This was something that really needed to be done with a brush, but since Naruto was currently at the academy and, from his hazy memories of covering sealing scrolls and explosive tags, would likely get in trouble if caught messing with seals unsupervised, he had to make do. Bringing a brush to class would be much too suspicious. No way was he going to let anyone, not even Iruka-sensei, prevent him from learning something so cool.

He continued drawing while mentally reciting the function of each component. This was a simple timed trap seal, meant to freeze an opponent in place for a short period of time. Naruto grinned just thinking of the pranking potential. Or even better, if he was able to place it sneakily, he could use it to finally kick that bastard’s butt in a spar.

Honestly, why was no one teaching this at the academy? It actually made a lot of sense and Naruto seemed to have a knack for it. And wasn’t that a novel idea? That he was actually _good_ at something? It wasn’t like he had any talent for genjutsu, and there was no one he could practice his taijutsu with. Ninjutsu wasn’t so bad, except the bunshin was basically impossible and it was one of those things that they were _always_ tested on. Everything else they were taught involved a lot of reading, which he usually couldn’t make heads or tails of and it only gave him a headache to try, so he didn’t.

In the end, he supposed it didn’t really matter if the academy was teaching fuinjutsu or not, since he was learning it now, and nobody would expect it when he became a master out of nowhere. Because he was determined to master the art of sealing. He wanted it. He wanted it more than his admittedly childish dream of becoming Hokage. Besides, it wasn’t so much the hat that he wanted, but the recognition and respect that came with it. Not to mention the common decency that no one seemed willing to grant to the no-name orphaned demon brat. The treatment he so desperately wanted by becoming Hokage could just as easily be gained by becoming a master in an obscure shinobi art.

Naruto shook off his heavy thoughts and switched to drawing explosive seals. He had to get the basics down or else he’d never be able to move on to making custom seals.

As soon as class let out for the day, Naruto skittered out the door faster than a rabbit with a cat on its tail, entirely ignoring the two sets of contemplative eyes that trailed after him. He raced home bubbling with giddy excitement. In short order he was sprawled out on the floor of his apartment with paper, brushes, and ink. Over the course of the last month his brushwork had improved in leaps and bounds. Now he no longer left ink drips everywhere and his strokes were smooth and even. He smiled in accomplishment at his practice sketches. Maybe when Hinoe came by he could pester her into finally letting him try out the real deal.

“Naruto-kun, you’ve got ink smudges on your face.”

Speak of the devil…

Upon the sill of the window he had left open was an elegant woman dressed in a purple floral kimono, curls of smoke trailing from a thin pipe in her hand. Full lips were painted a blood red, matching eyes highlighted with purple shadow, although one was hidden behind her rich midnight blue hair.

“Hinoe!” Naruto cheered. He jumped to his feet and thrust his paper at her. “Look at this, look at this! I’ve been practicing _all_ day and I think I’ve got it down so can I try activating them now? Please, please, please can I try?”

“So impatient, just like Kushina. You’re always in a hurry,” she chided, but the fond amusement was clear in her voice, so Naruto didn’t take it to heart. Hinoe brought the pipe to her lips, taking a drag, then exhaling a cloud of smoke. “Explain each of the components to me. Let’s make sure all the theory I drilled into your head actually stuck.”

Naruto’s cheeks puffed out in what was _absolutely not a pout_. “Come on, I can do that in my sleep by now.”

A paper fan appeared out of nowhere to thwack him lightly on the head. “Brat, there’s a reason I made you learn all of that first. This is a dangerous art. Mistakes can be fatal.”

"Fine," Naruto groaned, capitulating and doing as he was told. In all honesty he wasn't that put out. Hinoe was a good teacher and he was so thrilled to actually be learning something that he never complained much. Besides, it was because of her that he was doing so much better at the academy. One of her stipulations for teaching him sealing was that he put at least some effort into his normal schooling. And she was the one who stepped in to help when he struggled with reading.

She nodded in approval at his thorough breakdown of the seal and at last they headed out to forest to practice. They went to the outskirts of Konoha, on the edge of training ground 44. There it was less likely that they'd run into any other shinobi and Hinoe's presence would keep anything else from wandering too close. Naruto had never actually been inside Konoha's famous—or maybe infamous—Forest of Death, but instinct always had him sticking close to Hinoe, fenced off area or not. There was no need to tempt fate, not to mention that there were certain things that could not be stopped by physical barriers.

Naruto was a bit disappointed that Hinoe vetoed his suggestion of testing his exploding tags, however she had a valid point in that the noise could bring unwanted attention. It would have to wait until he learned some privacy seals. Instead, he used his trap seal to practice trapping small animals, rabbits, birds, and the like. Many of them were flighty and quick on their feet, so Naruto had to be careful to hide his presence, then swiftly activate the seal in order to catch them. Only after he had been at it awhile, with a number of failures and successes under his belt, did Hinoe show him how to adjust the seal into a passive trap.

The young ninja-in-training was only slightly miffed that he’d been made to do things the hard way first before being shown a more efficient method. Even he could see the benefit of learning to activate seals quickly on the unsuspecting. Plus, the prankster side of him would always appreciate the masterful use of stealth, surprise, and the delicate art of precision timing.

Armed with a stick and some new sealing knowledge, Naruto sat at the edge of the clearing he had claimed for his own, sketching a newly modified seal into the dirt. He muttered to himself as he went, devoting to memory the new components and their functions.

The chiming of bells coming from everywhere and nowhere at once had Naruto looking around in confusion while Hinoe just gave an exasperated huff. The clearing was just as empty as it had been from the start and there weren’t any people, human or otherwise, visible through the thick surrounding foliage.

“So this is what you’ve been up to. I’d heard that you’ve been coming to Konoha, but I wasn’t expecting this.”

Naruto looked up to see an enormous bull with a horse head descending from the sky. He—at least it seemed like a he, but Naruto didn’t want to assume because it was often hard to tell with yokai—was dressed in a pale lavender kimono with bells and gold rings dangling from his ears.

He had always been able to see them. Yokai. Ayakashi. Spirits. When he was younger and didn’t know better, he used to ask about the funny creatures he would sometimes see wandering into the village. The matrons at the orphanage, who already hated him, didn’t take too kindly to Naruto pointing at and talking to things that didn’t exist to their eyes. He learned quickly not to mention them. Which honestly wasn’t too difficult. They lurked in the shadows of the trees and the deeper parts of the Naka River, along unseen forest paths and in secret groves. Only the brave or the powerful ventured very far into the developed areas of Konoha. Hinoe said it was because even if they couldn’t see the yokai shinobi could still detect their presence to some extent. Despite the tasty meal shinobi made due to their power, those yokai who liked to eat people prefered to go for easier targets.

Naruto shivered at the thought of being eaten. So far, he had only run into a few yokai like that and only one encounter had been face to face. That had been an awful experience.

As a whole, the yokai weren’t so bad and they didn’t mind his presence too much. He had even befriended some that frequented the lesser used training grounds at the outskirts of the village. At least, after they had stopped running away any time they spotted him. But Naruto had kept coming back because he had sensed in them kindred spirits, filled with the same loneliness that he felt day in and day out. His efforts had eventually born fruit and he had gained his first friends.

So far, he had yet to be given a reason to regret that choice. Not even the incident a month and a half ago, even if it still gave him nightmares. But he had made more friends because of it, including Hinoe, so it still counted as a positive thing in his books.

The female ayakashi blew out a puff of smoke that danced and swirled in the light breeze. She asked, “Did you need something, Misuzu?”

Baring his teeth in an eerie grin, the bull yokai replied, “Is there something wrong with coming to visit an old friend?” Naruto wasn’t sure what to make of him just yet, but admittedly that smile was a bit disturbing.

"Uzumaki-sama!" A cheerful voice called out, breaking the faint air of tension that had unintentionally fallen over the clearing. The two chuukyuu popped up from behind some bushes. "We’ve come to visit you again." Wearing a dopey smile, the ox chuukyuu nodded his head in agreement.

The young boy in question stared at them incredulously. "It’s the middle of the day. Why are you already this drunk?"

"Evening is not far off. All the more reason to continue drinking through the night," said Chobihige as if it was the most normal thing in the world. He sat calmly next to Hinoe with sake in hand.

Naruto pointed at him, shouting, "Where did you come from?!" His question went unanswered as more and more yokai showed up to join the party.

"Hey! I'm supposed to be training!" an annoyed Naruto yelled at them.

Too lost in the revelry and the prospect of copious amounts of sake, most of the newcomers ignored the fuming boy. Hinoe, sending a regretful glance towards the others—or rather the sake, compromised by agreeing to help Naruto with his homework. So they sat just off to the side of the revelers and their merrymaking as Hinoe tried to drill some shinobi history into Naruto’s unwilling skull.

From the other side of the clearing, nearly forgotten, Misuzu continued to watch the boy with a curious, searching gaze.


	2. Chapter Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The last few weeks I've been wrestling with my very uncooperative brain with its penchant for abrupt shifts in hyperfixations and a general lack of motivation for writing. Then this week, when I finally got back into writing, I've had garbage internet since Metronet finally hit my neighborhood. But enough of my excuses, here's the next chapter.

The frog was just so tiny and adorable that Naruto couldn’t help himself. He didn’t have class today and thus he had planned to do some grocery shopping, but that was until he spied the little frog hopping along. He didn’t know what it was doing in the middle of Konoha—not that he minded. Frogs and toads were the best and no one could convince him otherwise. But it probably wasn’t safe in the middle of the street where anyone could accidentally step on it, and Naruto was more than happy to carry it back to the forest. Somewhere with a pond and lots of bugs, ‘cause frogs ate bugs, right? At least he thought so.

First, he just had to catch the slippery thing.

For something so small it was surprisingly quick and Naruto was left scrambling to keep up. He made a desperate lunge for the frog, only to barely graze it with his fingertips. Naruto huffed in frustration, still sprawled in the dirt. He narrowed his eyes at the little menace that was surely mocking him by always keeping just out of reach. Naruto was stubborn though. No way was he about to lose to a frog, even if he did adore the creatures.

An idea came to mind and he honestly could have smacked himself for not thinking of it sooner. Reaching into the pouch of his custom-made seals he’d taken to carrying around, Naruto pulled out a trap seal, eyes still fixed on his target. He lunged again, this time with a paper seal in hand. Again, his fingers glanced off the frog’s back, but it was enough contact to stick the seal in place. With a quick pulse of chakra the frog was immobilized. “Haha! Gotcha!” he crowed as he scooped up the tiny green amphibian.

It was only then that Naruto registered the unnatural silence surrounding him. In the back of his mind, he had been dimly aware of leaving the busy streets of Konoha and all the stares and whispers that always dogged his every footstep. He’d thought nothing of it, more comfortable wandering the many groves of trees scattered about the village than walking out in the open. However, one look at the unfamiliar arrangement of trees told him he’d strayed off the beaten path.

This was yokai territory.

Somehow without noticing, Naruto had slipped past the boundary into one of the hidden pockets of land where humans never tread. Hinoe had warned him about these places. Space got really weird. You could travel in a straight line for hours just to find yourself right back where you started, or search for a path out for days and not find it. Naruto didn’t consider himself particularly directionally challenged, seeing as he could traverse Konoha in his sleep, but yokai territory was something else altogether. He knew he was in trouble.

“I don’t suppose you know the way out?” he asked the little frog he was still clutching.

Even if the frog was capable of answering his question, neither were given the chance to find out as a shrill screech cut through the silence. Naruto jumped and spun around wildly, looking for the source. There was nothing but endless greenery, the unique hulking trees of Fire Country interspersed with creepy gnarled and hunched trees and thorny bushes. Rather than wait around for whatever that was to find him or doing the stupid thing and searching it out himself, Naruto figured retreat was the smartest option. An academy student could only do so much against even a weak yokai. He knew from experience that punching them didn’t do much damage and only intimidated the small fries. It was a good thing he had running from pursuit down to an art.

So the boy turned in the direction he was fairly confident he had come from originally and took off at a cautious but brisk walk, eyes and ears peeled for anything suspicious. The vegetation obscured everything, blocking his sight and catching on his clothes and muffling the sound of his own footsteps. There was no end to the woodlands, no distant glimpses of Konoha’s buildings or even the carefully landscaped training grounds. Naruto was truly lost. He considered calling for Hinoe.

An eruption of violently cracking branches broke the silence again. Ducking behind a tree, Naruto peeked out from behind it just in time to see an ayakashi stumble between a break in the trees, a humanoid with crow-black wings that was bleeding profusely from multiple wounds. Chasing it was another ayakashi, grey skinned with a disproportionately large skull-like head and hollow eyes. Given its bloody claws, it was clear just what, or rather who, had inflicted the damage on the winged one.

Naruto was horrified for all of two seconds before the anger kicked in reflexively. Thinking quickly, he tucked the frog into one of the oversized pockets on his jumpsuit and picked up a fist-sized rock, wrapping one of his explosive seals around it. It was set to explode on contact with another object, so he primed it with his chakra. While it wouldn’t produce a particularly powerful explosion, it would serve well as a distraction.

“Hey Ugly Skull!” he called out. Both ayakashi whipped around to stare at him. Naruto was unnerved to have those empty eyes turned on him, but he pushed on bravely. “Why don’t you pick on someone that can fight back?” The taunt was thankfully enough for Skull to leave behind the easy prey and come for him instead.

Taking advantage of his small size and the dense undergrowth, Naruto gave the much larger yokai the runaround. When he was sure they were a safe distance from the injured crow, putting on a burst of speed to gain some distance himself, he twisted around and took aim. The resulting explosive was quite satisfying, bringing an elated grin to Naruto’s lips even as heat licked at his back from his close proximity. An unholy howl of outrage wrenched itself from Skull as he was caught in the blast.

Naruto circled back to grab Crow. “Come on!” he said, tugging insistently. “We gotta go!” After picking a direction at random, he proceeded to run blindly away, Crow staggering after him. All too soon, thundering footsteps began to give chase. Naruto risked a glance over his shoulder. A slightly singed Skull was barreling after them, practically steaming in rage. Using his free hand, Naruto readied a sadly rather dull kunai. It would have to do. Luckily he had a large target to aim for. Spinning around entirely, he let the kunai fly, throwing as much force into it as he could. With a solid thunk it impacted Skull in the center of his head and he toppled over backward.

Not one to hold back his excitement, Naruto whooped at his success, congratulating himself on a fine hit. He jumped guiltily when a hand clenched around his wrist. “This way,” Crow gasped through harsh pants, directing them both down a small footpath. They took off once more. It wasn’t long before they emerged into the brightly lit clearing of one of the academy’s training grounds.

In their haste to get away and the disorientation at the abrupt change in locale, it was inevitable that Naruto smacked headlong into someone less than appreciative of the treatment. Sasuke let loose an undignified yelp as an orange cannonball slammed into him. The two boys tumbled to the ground and by some small miracle Naruto was able to redirect his momentum enough to not land directly on top of the Uchiha. He groaned and picked himself up. Sasuke was already glowering at him with smoldering eyes.

“Watch where you’re going, dobe,” Sasuke snarled.

“Teme,” Naruto fired back automatically while dusting his jumpsuit off. In the corner of his eye, Crow slumped in exhaustion and pain, blood running in a steady stream down his arms and chest. Naruto shook himself and said, “I don’t have time for you today.” He cackled internally at the offended look on the other boy’s face before brushing by him, discreetly dragging the injured yokai along. He pushed all thoughts of Sasuke aside and refocusing on getting his new friend taken care of.

A wave of relief washed over Naruto when he reached his apartment. By that point he was almost dragging Crow, who had barely enough energy to remain conscious, let alone walking. Once Crow was settled as comfortably as he could be on Naruto’s bed, the boy bustled about gathering medical supplies as well as a few old towels to clean up the blood. Then, he got to work patching up the yokai’s injuries. Naruto knew a thing or two about basic first aid from tussles with yokai. Unlike any of the times the villagers had gotten rough with him or when he hurt himself while training, injuries from yokai didn’t heal near instantaneously. After much trial and error, and some quiet observation at the hospital, he had learned enough to take care of himself. Hopefully it would be enough to help Crow. Just in case, Naruto pulsed his chakra in a specific pattern to call for Hinoe, just like how she taught him.

Her response time was as quick as always, and in short order Hinoe was there fussing over him in worry. Eventually he was able to wave her off so he could explain himself. “I’m fine, Hinoe. I called you ‘cause I bumped into this other yokai that was being chased by this big ugly skull guy and he was really badly hurt and I patched him up as best I could, but I thought you should take a look at him.” He didn’t care that he was rambling, because Hinoe never chastised him for it. In fact, the only ones more willing to listen to him babble on about his day were probably Ayame and Old Man Teuchi.

Hinoe sobered quickly. “Let me see him.”

He showed her into his bedroom before retreating back to his living room to give her space. Sitting down next to the coffee table with a gusty sigh, he dropped his head to the table to rest and wind down from the excitement of the morning. A moment later he bolted upright as he remembered his other unintended guest. “Sorry about that, little guy,” said Naruto, releasing the frog from its confinement.

However, as soon as the trap seal keeping it immobilized was removed, the frog launched itself through the window still cracked open from Hinoe’s arrival.

“Hey wait!” Naruto called out while scrambling after it, but it was already too late.

Dejected, Naruto slumped back onto the table to wait for Hinoe to finish up. He hoped Crow would be alright. With any luck, maybe he’d be willing to stick around, too. Naruto was always happy to make new friends.

“How interesting,” Misuzu’s voice boomed suddenly. Belatedly, his bells rang out as one of his massive eyes materialized outside Naruto’s window. He floated beside the apartment complex in midair as if this was a perfectly normal way to hold a conversation. “This was a test for you,” he said. “I wanted to know if you were worthy of Hinoe’s protection and of my own.”

Naruto was perplexed. “Huh? What are you talking about?”

“My retainer was the one that led you into the hidden grove, one that happens to house ayakashi with more violent tendencies,” said Misuzu.

Hinoe interrupted with a scoff. She stood in the doorway to the bedroom, ever present pipe once more in hand. “Really, Misuzu, was it necessary to go that far? If Naruto-kun had come to any harm I would have beat your head in with no mercy.”

“Irrelevant as he was able to hold his own.” He returned to addressing Naruto. “When confronted with a dangerous ayakashi, you were swift to jump to the defense of another. I was impressed. Even if your goal was to run away rather than fight.”

“So, how’d I do?” Naruto demanded, arms crossed defensively. He didn’t really know this yokai, but for some reason he wanted his approval. Probably the sad, lonely part of him that craved connections and greedily hoarded the attention of others. Hinoe and the chuukyuu were great, but that part of him always wanted  _ more. _

“Still undergoing consideration,” Misuzu answered. “I have no care for weaklings. Yet you intrigue me. If ever you are in trouble, you may call upon my name and I will come to you.”

And thus Naruto gained another powerful yokai ally.


	3. Chapter Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In a slightly roundabout way I found the motivation to finish this chapter after starting a new story that I really shouldn't have. But that one I will try to finish in its entirety before posting instead of winging it like usual.

“It’s not working,” Naruto growled in frustration, flopping to the ground in a huff. “At this rate I’m going to fail again.”

Hinoe gave a sympathetic hum while carding her fingers through Naruto’s hair. “I don’t know much about the shinobi arts. The only reason I could teach you sealing is because it came from the ayakashi to begin with. Unfortunately, this is something you have to figure out on your own.”

As the time for the graduation exam crept ever closer, Naruto had kicked up the intensity of his training. He was determined that this time he would pass. He was ready to become a full-fledged ninja. But in spite of all his effort, there was still one thing holding him back. He still had yet to perform even a passing attempt at creating a bunshin. Under Hinoe’s tutelage his chakra control had improved by leaps and bounds, so he thought he could finally get a handle on it. However, his every attempt ran away from him at the last second, no matter how hard he tried to rein in his chakra. It was like trying to isolate a single, narrow stream from a raging waterfall with your bare hands.

Naruto considered going to Iruka-sensei for help, but some part of him was hesitant. For all that the teacher tried in his own way to look out for Naruto—something no one else had done aside from Hinoe, Jiji, and Teuchi and Ayame—he wasn’t sure how to interact with him outside of the classroom and the occasional dinners at Ichiraku’s. That, and he was likely to get interrogated by Iruka-sensei about his behavior in recent months, and he didn’t want to risk getting in trouble for practicing sealing. It was his heritage; he wasn’t giving it up.

“What happens if I don’t pass my exams?” Naruto asked quietly.

“The world moves on,” said Hinoe. “You’ll get another chance, or perhaps you’ll find some other way of achieving your goals. Of course, there’s always the option of leaving this place behind and joining the yokai world permanently.”

Comforted rather than annoyed by the not-so-serious offer, Naruto grinned. It had become something of a joke between them. Back when they first met, Hinoe had been appalled by his situation, especially once she learned who he was. Naruto, for obvious reasons, had been clueless as to his parentage as well as its significance to Hinoe in particular, which she had been quick to correct. As a close friend of Kushina’s, she had felt well within her rights to take Naruto away from the village that neglected and mistreated him. At first, he had been outraged that she would even suggest such a thing. Konoha was his home, even in the face of all the hardships and the villagers’ treatment of him. Never in a million years could he imagine leaving.

“I’ll take things as they come and hope for the best,” Naruto declared, projecting as much optimism as he could. Regardless of what happened, he knew he would always have the support of Hinoe, Crow, the chuukyuu, and even Misuzu. For now, that was enough.

Speaking of Crow, or Yatagarasu as was his actual name, the bird yokai had in fact decided to stick around after he finished healing up, eager to get to know the boy who had saved his life. He was a strange sort of yokai, fascinated by humans and more than willing to wander into a village full of highly trained ninja when others would keep well away. The other weird thing was that he could make himself  _ visible _ —minus the wings so he would appear as a normal human—though when Naruto asked how he did it he gave a very hand-wavy explanation that didn’t actually answer the question.

Because of his unique ability, Crow had some great insights he decided to share with Naruto. He showed the boy how to hide in plain sight, to disappear and blend into a crowd without the use of disguises and only the slightest twist of chakra. It wasn’t at all like using a henge and also much more thorough than masking his presence like Hinoe had taught him. He couldn’t yet make his chakra signature vanish entirely, but he was able to spread out a thin layer of chakra over a wide area to make it difficult for anyone to pinpoint his location. Crow’s method, however, was more like putting up a filter between himself and the rest of the world, one that quietly suggested ‘don’t notice me.’ Both of these things came in handy when Naruto was in a pranking mood and wanted to get away scott-free.

In addition to teaching him how to be a better sneak, Crow joined Misuzu in teaching Naruto about yokai life. It’s not like Hinoe had never mentioned anything herself—she had been the one to cover the basics—but she was more concerned with his health and day to day living, in addition to teaching him sealing. Misuzu, on the other hand, seemed quite intent on educating Naruto in the intricacies of yokai society, although his reasoning for doing so was vague and mysterious. In the end, it didn’t matter what the purpose behind it was, Naruto was just happy to be learning stuff that no one else knew about.

In this way, days had turned into weeks, weeks to months, and in short order Naruto could almost forget that there had been a time before his strange little family had come together. Time continued to pass in this manner as he prepared for his hopefully successful graduation.

Then the day of the exams came. They didn’t go well.

“I did fine with everything else, even the written exam. I still don’t understand why I keep failing because of this one stupid jutsu.” It was something that had been bugging Naruto since the first time he’d tried to graduate early. Even if his score on the written test had been less than stellar back then—the only reason he was so confident this time around was because of Hinoe’s tutoring—the practical portion counted for more, and his admittedly mediocre skills still should have been enough to eek out a passing grade. And yet, Naruto’s inability to pull off a bunshin always constituted an automatic fail. It was beyond aggravating! Shinobi specialized in different skill sets for a reason!

Hinoe brushed a soothing hand over Naruto’s unruly blonde locks. “I’m sorry Naruto-kun. I know you worked hard for this and were looking forward to your graduation.”

Naruto’s face turned pensive. “Mizuki-sensei said something strange to me,” he said. He proceeded to give his account of Mizuki’s offer of some secret graduation test that he’d never heard of and the obviously suspicious way he had presented it. “I know he’s lying. Mizuki-sensei’s never liked me, and he’s got no reason to help me. I’m just not sure what to do about it.”

“It seems clear that he’s laying a trap for you,” said Hinoe. “For what purpose, I can only speculate. The way I see it, you now have three options: you could ignore his proposal and move on, whether that be waiting for the next exam or otherwise; you could inform your Hokage and let him deal with the situation; or you can turn the trap back on him.”

Perking up in intrigue, Naruto gave the idea some thought. Slowly, a mischievous smirk began to emerge. “Yeah,” he said. “That sounds like fun.”

That night found him putting his stealth skills to the test. It was easy enough to get to the Hokage Tower undetected, and even getting inside wasn’t too difficult with Crow’s little technique. Initially Naruto had some concern that it wouldn’t work as well against trained shinobi as it did against civilians, but that didn’t seem to be the case. Rather than completely disregarding his presence, they simply dismissed him as unimportant and nonthreatening, just a fellow shinobi reporting to the Hokage. Distracting Jiji himself was as simple as employing his special original technique he proudly declared the Sexy Jutsu.

Before moving on to retrieve the Forbidden Scroll, Naruto paused by Jiji’s desk. Shaking back a sleeve revealed a silver bangle carved with several storage seals; Hinoe insisted he gain mastery before even thinking about inking seals as had once been common practice among Uzushio nin. Gently laying his fingers atop one of the seals, Naruto sent a pulse of chakra through it and withdrew the pre-written note contained within. He had figured it was best to give Jiji at least some forewarning as to what was going on. He placed the note on the desk, then went for the scroll and got the heck out of dodge.

Naruto booked it to the location Mizuki had said to meet up at. He still had some time until the man showed up, so he was going to make the most of the situation. This was a golden opportunity to learn all kinds of interesting forbidden jutsu. First order of business, he unsealed some blank paper and got to copying the contents of the scroll. The great thing about Hinoe forcing him to practice his penmanship for hours on end was that copying even such a large scroll was a quick and easy task. Once that was done, and his notes were sealed away, he focused his attention on one particular jutsu.

The kage bunshin.

If he was to get nothing else out of this mess, he would at least learn an alternative to the jutsu that got him in this situation in the first place.

When Naruto stopped to take a break and catch his breath, he noticed a rabbit yokai waving for his attention. It pointed up into the trees. Looked like he was about to have company. Not a minute later Iruka waltzed up, face pinched with anger. For a second, Naruto was concerned that the Hokage hadn’t found his note and that he’d have to fast-talk his way out of trouble. He disregarded that worry for now as yokai in his periphery announced the arrival of a second person still hidden in the trees.

Hands on his hips, the academy teacher fixed Naruto with his sternest expression and said, “Give it up, Naruto. Do you have any idea how much trouble you’re in right now?”

Naruto decided to play dumb for the sake of the hidden watcher. “Aw man, you caught up to me pretty quick. But hey, guess what? I have something really cool to show you! I had just enough time to learn this really awesome jutsu, so now you  _ have _ to let me graduate! That’s how it works, right?”

Iruka’s anger turned to confusion. “Graduate? What are you talking about?”

“The secret graduation test, of course! Mizuki-sensei told me about it.”

“Huh? Mizuki?”

Before Naruto could continue his explanation, Iruka shoved him aside as a number of kunai came flying their way. The teacher was able to dodge most of them himself, but one succeeded in catching him in the leg.

“So, you managed to find this place,” said Mizuki as he finally showed himself.

“I see how it is,” Iruka gritted out through clenched teeth, glaring up at the other man.

Mizuki smirked arrogantly at the two down below him. “Naruto, give me the scroll,” he demanded.

Naruto crossed his arms across his chest and thrust his chin out in the very picture of defiance. “Nah, I don’t think I will,” he replied.

“Give it to me and I’ll tell you all about the secrets everyone has been keeping from you.”

“Naruto, don’t listen to him!” shouted Iruka.

“What secrets?” Naruto asked. Mizuki wasn’t trustworthy by any stretch of the imagination, but he was curious about what the man had to say. It was probably something stupid and not actually true. Just another attempt to manipulate him.

“Haven’t you ever wondered why everyone treats you the way they do? Like they hate your very existence? They’ve been hiding something from you your whole life, ever since the decree twelve years ago.”

“What decree?"

“Stop it, Mizuki!”

“The demon that destroyed the village and even killed Iruka’s parents is you. You are the Kyuubi, the Nine-Tailed Fox!”

Naruto’s eyes widened in alarm. He knew exactly what Mizuki was talking about, but clearly he wasn’t supposed to. Mizuki was watching him with this crazed look in his eyes, expecting Naruto to be shocked or betrayed or something. He didn’t think he could convincingly fake a reaction to that effect, so Naruto blurted out the first thing he could think of. “Wow, you’re dumb. There’s no way I’m a fox ‘cause obviously I’m a human.” Internally he winced at how idiotic that sounded, but at least it was realistic for the image most people had of Naruto as the dead-last prankster that couldn’t crack open a book to save his life.

“Enough of this!” Mizuki had clearly worn out his patience. “Give me the scroll!”

“No way!”

“Then I’ll just have to kill you and take it myself!” Without further ado, Mizuki launched a handful of shuriken at the boy.

Naruto was already diving out of the way when Iruka used his own body as a shield. All Naruto could do was stare at him in shocked bewilderment. Sure, his teacher had pushed him out of danger once already, but this was something else altogether. Why would he do this?

“I’m sorry, Naruto,” Iruka said, voice thin and strained from the pain. “I should have done more to help you. Because I know how you feel. You and I, we’re the same.”

He understood. Naruto could see it in his eyes that he knew the pain of loneliness. The pain of being the outcast. They really were the same. They were connected in a way most other people couldn’t understand. And Mizuki had hurt him because of Naruto. This was unacceptable.

Truly angry now, Naruto gently moved Iruka to the side, careful of his injuries, and got to his feet. Then, he summoned an army of clones. This whole thing would have been so much easier if he could use seals, but it was too soon to show his hand. Instead, he had to settle for letting his clones pummel Mizuki into unconsciousness. As soon as the man went down, Anbu arrived on scene to whisk him away. Naruto breathed a sigh of relief. Jiji must have read his note after all. But, he wondered, why hadn’t they stepped in sooner?

Gingerly levering himself to his feet with the help of a sturdy tree, Iruka called out to Naruto. “Listen, Naruto, the things Mizuki was saying—”

“I knew about it already,” he interrupted.

Iruka stared at him in shock, “How?”

Naruto shrugged. “People talk. Especially if they’re drunk.” True statement, if not actually in this context. The key to deception, he had learned from Crow, was to never actually tell a lie. A cleverly misleading truth served better in the long run.

He did feel slightly bad for lying to Iruka-sensei after everything he’d done in an effort to protect Naruto, but this was a delicate situation. If anyone learned how he _ actually _ found out about the Kyuubi, then it would only put Hinoe, Crow, and the others in danger. More so if he was forced to explain the exact nature of yokai and their relation to the Kyuubi no Kitsune, something which was likely to cause a panic, or a riot, or possibly both. After all, while all of the Bijuu were extraordinarily powerful forces of nature and immense chakra powerhouses, they themselves were technically yokai. Word getting out that there were hundreds, or even thousands of unseen creatures similar to the Bijuu would only cause more chaos than anyone was prepared to deal with. It wouldn’t matter that the Bijuu were in a totally different class.

There was a reason yokai generally stayed hidden, one that had nothing to do with most humans’ inability to see them.

Iruka’s voice broke Naruto from his thoughts. “Here, Naruto, I have something for you.” As Naruto approached, he reached up to untie his hitai-ate. He presented it to his student with a proud smile on his face. “I think you’ve earned this. Congratulations.”

This was the outcome Naruto had been hoping for, but all the same he couldn’t help the happy tears that welled in his eyes. Without a second thought, he crashed into Iruka and hugged him tightly. “Thank you, Iruka-sensei.”

Finally, things were going his way. This was only the beginning. But with this first step, Naruto knew that someday he would make his dream a reality.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Most of this actually came together pretty quickly. Except the confrontation with Mizuki. I didn't want to rehash what happened in canon, but I also didn't want it to deviate too much just yet. Hopefully it makes sense the way I wrote it. I mostly just wanted to condense it down, because in the original scene Mizuki really draws it out for someone trying to commit treason and make a quick getaway. Anyway, feel free to tell me what you think.


	4. Interlude: Meeting Hinoe

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, it's been a full month apparently?

Giggling laughter filled the air before being muffled by a hand. Trying to quiet himself so as not to give his position away, Naruto darted around a corner and slipped through a narrow gap in a fence. He ghosted along it for a ways, ears trained on the distant shouts of the shopkeeper he had just successfully pranked. The older woman was just a civilian, so he wasn’t too worried about actually being caught. He had to stifle more giggles as the shouts grew more distant.

Since he was already halfway there, Naruto decided to head up to the top of the Hokage Mountain to kill some time and to make sure the woman had given up on catching him. Maybe later he could have a celebratory dinner at Ichiraku’s. Naruto turned away to make his way there, already salivating at the thought of his precious ramen. He bounded up the path with the overabundance of energy only possessed by the youth. He even made a game of it, leaping over obstructing bushes and ducking under grasping tree limbs as though they were enemy ninja trying to block his path.

Adrenaline pumping, the boy tumbled into the clearing at the top with a victorious cry. A gust of wind rustled his hair and tickled the nape of his neck. Giddily he danced and spun about until he got dizzy, then flopped down for a bit of a breather. He shut his eyes and let the warmth of the sun soak in, listened to the wind whispering through the leaves and, just beneath that, the echoing sounds of  _ life _ in Konoha.

There was a reason the monument was one of his favorite places, and it wasn’t just because of the amazing view. Sometimes he would sit here and just  _ listen _ , imagining he was a part of it. Maybe he’d have an actual civil conversation with a shopkeeper, or bump into a friend on the street and stop for a chat. No more angered shouts or snide comments, no threats or poorly hidden mutters wishing for him to disappear. No longer an eyesore, scorned for simply existing.  _ Acknowledgement _ , he thought wistfully. What he wouldn’t give for just a little bit of it.

Naruto had a few yokai friends, sure, but they came and went as they pleased. Time was an abstract concept to them; months could go by and they’d act like they’d seen each other just yesterday. What he craved was human connection, for someone to just  _ see _ him, not as a monster or a problem child or whatever new label the civilians dubbed him with.

His turn of thought was getting him down, so Naruto forcibly shook them off.

Instead, he figured he might as well work on his taijutsu. It was frustrating that he didn’t have anyone to practice with, but it had to count for something, right? Practice makes perfect, after all, and he was trying to practice regularly. Naruto leapt to his feet and fell into a basic stance taught by the academy.

He stopped short. Cocking his head, he stared bemused at a most unusual sight. There was a procession of yokai trailing off deeper into the woods. While he had seen plenty of yokai before, this was the first time he’d seen so many together in one spot. In the midst of the procession, Naruto caught sight of a familiar face. It was the one-eyed chuukyuu, which meant that the rest of the Dog Circle had to be nearby.

Taijutsu practice long forgotten in favor of this much more interesting development, he raced after them.

“Hey guys!” Naruto called out. Several yokai all turned to look at him and began muttering among themselves.

“Uzumaki-sama!” One-Eye exclaimed cheerfully, followed by Ox, who appeared at his side.

“What’s up with the huge gathering?”

“Omibashira-sama recently revived and is holding a banquet. Anyone seeking his protection is attending to give him offerings,” said One-Eye while Ox parroted him and nodded along.

Naruto tucked his hands behind his head, keeping pace with the chuukyuu as the procession resumed. “Who’s Omibashira?”

“He’s a powerful spirit that was once the lord of this forest. Long ago, some human exorcist sealed him away in the mountains. It’s great that he’s back now!”

The forest rather suddenly transitioned into stone steps that Naruto knew hadn’t been there a moment ago, leading further up into the trees. At the top was a large, lavish looking mansion. Naruto gaped up at it. “Woah, this place is huge!” He let the crowd ferry him along into the building, head swiveling back and forth to take everything in. They meandered down a couple hallways before passing through the double doors into a large banquet hall.

Already the hall was packed even as more and more ayakashi showed up for the celebration. Two yokai in horned masks and matching blue kimonos were ushering everyone towards an altar to present their offerings to Omibashira. Around the edges of the room were tables loaded with delicious looking food and drink, much of which the yokai present had begun to partake in with gusto.

Naruto stuck around to chat and catch up with everyone--it had been a while since they had all gotten together--however once the sake started flowing, he excused himself to go off to explore. He didn’t begrudge them their fun, but he couldn’t stand the smell. One too many late night encounters with angry drunks in the short months between when the orphanage had kicked him out and when Jiji had given him his own apartment had forever put him off the stuff. Instead, he occupied himself sliding down the halls on the delightfully slippery polished wood flooring, and popping his head into various doorways to find all kinds of color-themed sitting rooms, a formal-looking dining room, and even a modest library.

The place was impossibly huge, and Naruto quickly lost count of how many rooms he had looked into. Honestly, half of Konoha could be stuffed into the mansion it was that big.

He was checking out the second floor when a choked off yell caught his attention. Without a second thought, he ran towards it, his acute hearing leading him unerringly in the right direction. He skidded around the corner to the hallway just off the main stairs.

What he saw chilled him to the bone. There was fresh blood. Red puddles trailed down the hallway and what looked like a handprint was smeared across one wall. Naruto turned back the way he came and booked it.

He didn’t have a clue what was going on or whose blood that was. All he knew was that he had to get his friends out of here. The Dog Circle were a strange bunch and not the most reliable, seeing how they mostly met up to get drunk, but they genuinely liked Naruto, and for that alone he would do his best to protect them.

Thanks to his good memory for layouts, Naruto quickly found himself back in the main banquet hall. He spotted the chuukyuu, Chobihige, Benio, and Kappa all slumped together. A couple had completely passed out, but One-Eye and Chobi were drunkenly giggling and staring off into the middle distance. Naruto rushed over and shook the others awake. “Guy’s, something’s wrong,” he said hurriedly. “We have to get out of here.”

“It’s fine,” One-Eye hiccuped. “We’re having a great time!”

“Great time. Great time,” mumbled Ox sleepily.

Naruto growled in frustration. “No seriously, we have to go! Someone’s attacking yokai here! I saw it!” It was only with much shoving and cajoling that Naruto got everyone to their feet and stumbling for the main entrance. A few yokai watched the group curiously, but most looked unbothered.

They made it to the entryway and Naruto made a beeline to the front door. It was locked. He jiggled the handle in agitation, slammed it with his shoulder, even kicked it to no avail. It wasn’t budging. He could feel his heart beginning to race as anxiety flooded him. Never more so than now did Naruto regret not knowing any helpful jutsu. If he did, he could probably bust down the door no problem.

That was when all hell broke loose. Screams and fearful gibbering filled the air. Ayakashi clambered over each other as they all scrambled for the nearest exit, only to find themselves sealed in. With renewed urgency, Naruto pushed everyone in the opposite direction of the screaming, shoving at every window he passed in the hopes one would give. They didn’t. Still he kept urging the others on, if only to buy himself some time to think of a plan. But he hardly had the chance to. Some niggling bit of intuition had him whirling around in time to see something step out of the wall into the hallway behind them.

A creepy, headless white robed figure with a single black eye on its chest stood at the end of the hall. There was a menacing red aura around it that sent a shiver down Naruto’s spine. He gulped as he fingered the few kunai he had on hand. The others were in no fit state to run, let alone fight back, so he was their only line of defense. He took up a kunai in each hand, ignoring the way they trembled.

Firming his resolve, Naruto threw the kunai at the approaching figure. Both phased right through. He blinked in shock. That was unexpected. And he didn’t have a backup plan.

His heart pounded furiously, so incredibly loud that he imagined everyone must be able to hear it too. He was more scared than he’d ever been, but not for his own wellbeing. Frankly, this wasn’t the first time he was being confronted by the possibility of his death. No, his concern lay with what few friends he had, the few beings that acknowledged his existence and didn’t flinch away from him.

The robed yokai was getting closer and Naruto didn’t know what to do. His vision started to go blurry as tears welled in his eyes. He wanted to run, but he couldn’t. He wanted to fight, but he clearly couldn’t do that either. So he sat frozen in indecision, all the while that evil aura washed over him, tinting everything red, red, red, and then there was roaring, screaming, laughter in his ears even as his mind went blank.

“Kushina?” The hopeful cry was the last thing he was aware before everything went hazy.

* * *

Naruto came to lying on his back in the grass. He opened his eyes to see he was on a hilltop overlooking the mansion, the sun setting and streaking the sky in orange and pink. A woman with indigo hair and a beautifully embroidered purple kimono sat nearby, watching him. From the first glance Naruto knew her to be a yokai, even though there was nothing obviously inhuman about her. It was just a feeling he got. The Dog Circle were all close by, too, and looked to be sleeping off the alcohol.

He sighed in relief. He was glad everyone got out of that alright. Turning back to the lady who was still watching him, he gave her a sheepish smile. “Thanks for the save.”

Her response was an amused chuckle. “Oh, that wasn’t me.”

“What do you mean?” he asked. “There’s no way I could have taken out that creepy headless guy. Besides, why else would you be here?”

She huffed at him like he was being exceptionally slow. Naruto didn’t understand what her deal was. “I could sense the power of the greater ayakashi sealed within you. After all, it was with his power that you saved yourself and your friends there.”

“Inside me? What are you talking about?”

Pulling out a slim pipe from her sleeve and lighting in, Purple Lady took a long draw, then answered, “You are the current warden of one of the nine Bijuu, the Kyuubi no Kitsune.”

Naruto reeled back in shock. He knew the stories, as everyone in Konoha did, of the Kyuubi’s attack on the village. Plus, he idolized the fourth Hokage. Who else could boast that they’d taken down a Bijuu? But that begged the question: if the Yondaime had killed the Kyuubi, how could it be inside Naruto now? And if the lady was telling the truth and it  _ was _ truly sealed in him, why? Why  _ him _ ? Naruto was so confused and not sure which questions to ask. They all felt like landmines. He went with a more innocent line of questioning, while trying to make sense of everything. “Since when were the Bijuu yokai? I thought most people couldn’t see them.”

“That is true most of the time. Greater ayakashi are an exceptional case,” Purple Lady answered with more patience than he was used to being subjected to. Most people would already be screaming at him. Maybe it was a yokai thing. “Their immense power doesn’t lend itself to remaining hidden. It spills out and affects those around them, allowing humans to see when they otherwise would not. This is especially so for the Bijuu.

“Because of their power and great size, the Bijuu are feared by lesser ayakashi and humans alike. There are unspoken rules we follow, but the nine answer to no one but themselves. Fear of the unknown was what drove humans to seal them away, using other humans as living cages to keep under constant guard. That way they could ensure that the Bijuu would not turn against them.”

Taking a deep breath and telling himself to suck it up, Naruto finally asked about the one thing that bothered him the most. “Why me?”

The woman gave him an unimpressed look as smoke from her pipe swirled around her. “You are an Uzumaki, are you not? Few others would have the necessary reserves of spiritual energy to keep the Kyuubi no Kitsune contained. Since the first sealing those of your clan have been his wardens.”

“I have a clan?” Naruto boggled in confused wonder.

“Did Kushina teach you nothing?”

“Who’s Kushina?”

A look of quiet devastation came over her face. “Kushina was the previous warden,” she said. The momentary display of grief subsided and her features smoothed out once more. “She died when the Kyuubi escaped the seal and attacked the village. Are you saying you never met?”

Naruto shook his head. “I’ve never even heard of other Uzumaki. ‘Sides, the Kyuubi attack happened ‘bout eleven years ago, on the day I was born.”

“What?!” she barked in outrage. “They forced this duty onto you the day you were born, and then never bothered to tell you about it?! Or teach you how to deal with it? It’s a miracle you haven’t been eaten by an ayakashi yet!”

Naruto could only watch wide-eyed as the woman began pacing, her furious ranting devolving into wordless shrieks. This went on for some time before she was able to cool her temper. Only after she seemed to have calmed down did Naruto speak again. “So, um, what am I supposed to do about all this? Should I--or, I guess, could I set him free? I mean, it can’t be comfortable to be locked away.” He didn’t know how to feel about having what amounted to a chakra demon stuffed inside him, but he could sympathise with the situation. Being isolated and hated for the possibilities of what you could do was not a fun experience for anyone.

Purple Lady gave him a searching look, then frowned. “I never liked the idea of sealing the Bijuu, but it’s safer for now--both for him and everyone else. However, your education on this matter is severely lacking. Without training you’ll only get yourself killed and as a consequence unleash the Kyuubi no Kitsune from his cage. Therefore, I shall take it upon myself to teach you.”

_ This day just keeps getting weirder and weirder, _ Naruto thought. But hey, if he got a mentor out of all of this mess… Well, he had learned by now how to roll with the punches.

“What’s your name?”

“You may call me Hinoe.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I planned to have this out sooner, but I kept getting sidetracked by new ideas my brain was throwing at me. So, I may or may not be posting a couple of new stories in the near future. And one of these days I may get back to my Kingdom Hearts fic, but honestly the plot for that one is a headache for me to wrap my head around, and I'm the one who came up with it.


	5. Chapter Four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kind of a short chapter where not much happens, but I figured it was important to include. The next couple of chapters should be more interesting as they'll get more into the yokai stuff.

Naruto relished in the strange, new, wonderful sensation of the hitai-ate proudly wrapped across his forehead. He had been on cloud nine ever since Iruka-sensei gave it to him. And now he got to face all his classmates with the symbol of his success. Maybe he could get them to stop treating him like dirt.

He kind of doubted it, though, since only Shikamaru, and by extension Chouji, treated him like just another kid and not a monster or a hopeless deadlast. Kiba tended to blow hot and cold on him, Shino never talked to anybody--and frankly everyone seemed to forget he was even there--and Sasuke ignored his every attempt at forming a friendly rivalry.

As for the girls in his class, well, that was pretty obvious. They were all in the Fanclub. Except Hinata, but she was like Shino. But the Fanclub worshipped the last Uchiha, and they took his ignoring Naruto as permission to heckle him. And the worst of the bunch hated his guts to an unreasonable degree.

Naruto’s prediction proved pretty spot on as disbelieving stares greeted his entrance to the classroom. Almost immediately, Sakura came stomping up to him.

“Naruto-baka what are you doing here?” she demanded, face flushing red in anger. “This is for graduates only.”

It was hard to believe he had thought her pretty once. Well, she still was kind of pretty. Until she opened her mouth. The first time they met, he had thought her gentle and delicate, like her namesake. Her intense rivalry with Ino and equally intense fanaticism towards Sasuke quickly destroyed that image.

“I am a graduate,” Naruto pointed out, proudly thumbing his hitai-ate.

“I thought you failed the exam,” came Sasuke’s quiet monotone.

Gaping a bit, Naruto could only stare at him; the teme never the one to initiate anything! Collecting himself, Naruto shrugged and said, “I took a different test, since the normal one wasn’t a good fit.” He left out the fact that the test itself was fake. Although, dealing with Mizuki had been sort of a test of its own.

Sakura obnoxiously butted back in. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Surprisingly, it was Shikamaru who answered her before Naruto had a chance to. “In case you’ve never noticed, Naruto’s got more chakra than probably all of us combined.” When Naruto turned to look, the Nara was slumped back in his seat, eyes shut, as was normal for the lazy genius. But Naruto knew he was being watched closely.

“That's a lie!” Sakura exclaimed. Clearly she didn’t like that answer. “Sasuke is the best there is. There’s no way he would be in any way inferior to  _ Naruto. _ ” She sneered and glared down her nose at the boy in question. The other girls in the Fanclub were quick to back up Sakura.

Naruto, of course, was used to that sort of treatment and merely shrugged again. “Say what you want. Doesn't make it true.”

He was saved from the ensuing shouting match by the timely arrival of Iruka-sensei. “Alright settle down everyone,” the teacher called out. Once everyone had quieted and found a seat, Iruka-sensei addressed them with a proud smile. “As of today, you are all full-fledged ninjas. You’ve all worked very hard and come a long way. However, this is only the beginning. You have many challenges yet before you.

“Right now you are genin, and from here on out you’ll be placed in teams of three under the leadership of an elite jounin. It is with these teams that you will carry out missions.”

The announcement of squads sparked a quiet, but fierce, debate among the girls over who would get to team up with Sasuke. As for Naruto, he just buried his face in his arms with a quiet groan. There wasn’t anyone in particular he cared to team up with, aside from maybe Shikamaru. It was unlikely to happen, because when did anything ever go Naruto’s way?

“The groups have been arranged to ensure a balance of strength and abilities,” continued Iruka-sensei. He held aloft a sheaf of papers. “I will now announce the squads.”

Naruto tuned out the teacher’s voice as he waited for his own name to be called. He hoped that at the very least he didn’t end up with a team that completely hated him. Even dealing with Kiba would be preferable to someone like Sakura or Ino. Maybe Shino or Hinata would be nice; Naruto didn’t always do well with silence, but at least the quiet ones wouldn’t be making fun of him or trying to tell him how stupid he was.

“Team seven: Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura, and Uchiha Sasuke.”

Staring uncomprehendingly at Iruka-sensei, Naruto wondered how he could have such bad luck. This team was an awful idea.

* * *

Most of the classroom was long emptied, the majority of the jounin instructors having come hours ago to collect their teams. All except team seven’s. Naruto had quickly grown bored of Sakura’s hopeless attempts to engage Sasuke, who ignored both his newly dubbed teammates and sat as though trying to impersonate a stone statue. At the two hour mark, he had decided to trap the door with a simple prank, heedless of Sakura’s admonishments and Sasuke’s skepticism. Honestly, Naruto didn’t care if it failed or not, it was at least something to do.

Now, three hours into the wait, Naruto was working on a new seal for lack of anything better to do. This one was a variation of the standard explosive seal. The goal was to adapt it into a smoke bomb, but so far his attempts had ended up more of a fireball that then produced a lot of smoke. He was brainstorming different ignition radicals he could use as opposed to keeping the fire suppression component when his thoughts began to wander.

He thought back on Shikamaru and the way he--not quite defended Naruto, per se. All he did was state a fact and it just happened to have the side effect of supporting Naruto. And Naruto wasn’t sure what to think of it. Sure, he and Shikamaru got on alright and they had on occasion ditched class together, but they weren’t exactly  _ friends. _ Not really. Perhaps he should seek out the other boy when they both had some downtime.

Naruto perked up when, finally, the classroom door opened.

Sticking an eraser over the door looked pretty boring at first glance, and not nearly enough to really be considered a prank, but Naruto had an ace up his sleeve now. What wasn’t immediately obvious was the seal stuck on the back of it. The seal itself was just a simple storage seal; however, it was set to release its contents when it came into contact with a chakra source, somewhat like a contact-type explosive seal. This one happened to contain a couple buckets worth of teal paint.

The jounin who entered the room was either expecting it or had really good instincts as he sidestepped the falling eraser without letting it touch him. Naruto was only minorly disappointed; with the man’s fair silver hair the color would have been very difficult to wash out.

Sakura immediately started trying to suck up while throwing Naruto under the bus. The jounin just continued to assess them with a single droopy eye. Sakura’s explanations eventually petered out.

“My first impression of you,” said the jounin, “well, I hate you. Meet up at the rooftop in five minutes.” Without further ado, he vanished in a swirl of leaves.

Sighing despondently, Naruto got up to do just that, skipping out of the way as Sakura made to shove past him. In short order, the three members of team seven were seated before the jounin leaning against the rooftop railing and starting a round of introductions where the jounin gave his name, Hatake Kakashi, and nothing else; Sakura was a typical fangirl and kept looking at Sasuke and giggling; and Sasuke apparently wanted to kill a guy. Yeesh.

When it was Naruto’s turn, he played up the dopey prankster obsessed with ramen, and didn’t even hint at anything supernatural or of a seal-related nature. He didn’t know for sure in their new sensei had spied the seal on his eraser prank, but if he had--and seeing his reaction, Naruto suspected he might have--Naruto didn’t want him thinking much of it. After all, he had chosen a storage seal for a reason. Everyone was taught those, and it was believable enough if he claimed to have messed around with one on his own solely for pranking purposes.

The proposed survival exercise sounded alright, although he couldn’t fathom why Sakura seemed to take personal offense at it. What did she think they would be doing after graduation? What did come as a nasty surprise was the actual graduation rate. Seriously, the survival exercise was  _ another _ test and only nine of the class of twenty seven would pass? Looked like Naruto’s chances of becoming a proper ninja were getting slimmer by the minute, what with this mess of a team and now this.

Naruto got home and planted himself face first into his bed, suddenly overcome with exhaustion. That was how Hinoe found him.

“My team is a complete disaster,” he declared before she could ask how his day went. His voice was muffled from having his face smushed into the mattress. He rolled onto his back to stare at the ceiling, reflecting on all the reasons why teaming him up with Sasuke and Sakura was a monumentally bad idea.

Only half serious, he asked, “Hinoe, is it too late to turn back?”

“Brat, you’ve worked hard for this. No giving up before you’ve even given it a try, alright?” She fixed him with a stern look for all of two seconds before caving and ruffling his hair. “Give it some time. If the other two brats refuse to work with you, then you must give them a reason to.”

“And how do I do that?” Naruto pouted.

“Don’t do anything that might put you in danger, but prove to them that everything you’ve achieved so far was not by some fluke. Show them that you are an indispensable part of the team.”

Hinoe’s steady support made him feel slightly better, but still, Naruto was  _ not _ looking forward to tomorrow’s test.


	6. Chapter Five

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I needed a break from my other writing, so I figured it was about time to come back to this as this chapter as well as the next have been sitting half-written for some time now...

Another day of D-ranks. Wonderful. Dipping his brush into the paint--dull, boring white when orange would be so much better--Naruto dragged it across the unpainted wood of the fence. He frowned at the unevenness of the paint and the way it dripped in sluggish rivulets.

"Naruto-baka, you're doing it all wrong!" Sakura shrieked at him from her own place along the fence.

He brushed her off. It's not like he'd ever done this before. Nobody took the time to critique his painting skills whenever it was involved in one of his pranks. Now give him a fine-tipped brush like the ones he used for sealing and he could show Sakura up any day with his calligraphy skills.

"Ugh, this sucks," Naruto complained five minutes later. This was dull, boring, and dull, just like every D-rank before this. Early on he had tried to send clones in his place, but Hinoe had put a stop to that pretty quickly. So now he had to suffer through doing other people's chores every day. The only upside to this particular job was that he was comfortable enough with brushes that he wasn't getting wrist cramps. "I thought that... well I don't know what I thought we'd be doing, but it wasn't painting fences and pulling weeds."

"Naruto, shut up," said Sasuke.

Naruto childishly stuck his tongue out at the Uchiha before going back to work.

The past couple of weeks have been excruciatingly tense and awkward. The so-called Team Seven had more in common with an explosive seal than a real team. Sakura spent most of her time fawning over Sasuke and only acknowledged Naruto to criticise his work, his input on any conversation, his eating habits, anything she could think of. Sasuke in turn did his best to ignore both of them, and the only times he spoke was to reprimand or belittle. Naruto had no idea what his problem was. Sakura's either, for that matter.

It had all started with their final test that determined whether or not they would be sent back to the academy or became real genin. The test that had been a chaotic mess of failure. Naruto honestly had no idea how they were allowed to pass.

The bell test had confused him a bit at the offset. Only two would become genin and the third would get sent back? It didn't seem right. Naruto had spent his whole life running around Konoha, and he couldn't recall ever seeing other genin working in pairs rather than groups of three. But what did he know? It’s not like he had ever spent much time around any Konoha nin aside from his classmates and Iruka-sensei.

His other two teammates had gone off on their own immediately at the signaled start, leaving Nauto to his own devices. He had considered throwing some seals around, but decided to hold back. He hadn’t been sure if Kakashi had picked up on the seal used in his eraser prank. Either way, he hadn’t wanted to show his hand before he had to.

In the end, he had gone in search of his wayward 'team' to see if either of them had an idea on how to get the bells. After all, Kakashi was a jounin, so he had to be strong, right? Too strong for a couple of new graduates.

Weaker yokai tended to band together against the threat of something stronger, so why not try that here? Well, actually they tended to run for cover or seek out the protection of a more powerful ayakashi, but that was besides the point. Also, there was the fact that Hinoe had beaten it into his head to learn everything possible about a situation before diving into it headlong--springing traps aside--and Naruto really hadn’t wanted another lecture on recklessness.

Except that plan had been shot down hard when Sakura refused to listen and Sasuke wouldn't even give him the time of day. Not like they did any better on their own. Sasuke had stupidly tried to take the jounin on by himself and instead got buried up to his neck in the ground. Naruto, of course, had graciously taken the opportunity to lord this over the other boy. As for Sakura, well she had passed out for no reason, screaming Sasuke’s name, so...

Since he had still been on his own, Naruto had set up some non-seal-based traps, both to draw Kakashi away and buy time for him to talk sense into the other two. After all, he was nothing if not persistent and neither of them had seemed to have solid plans of their own. He had managed to talk them into reluctantly joining forces. They still failed.

They had been allowed to break for lunch with the condition that neither Sakura nor Sasuke feed Naruto, who wound up tied to a tree stump as some strange form of punishment. In the midst of their squabbling over following the rules versus sticking together as a team, they had eked out a pass by some fluke. Maybe it had been purely because of Sasuke's status as an Uchiha. He was everyone's favorite prodigy; no way would they let him fail.

Naruto ducked beneath the splash of paint Sakura sent his way and focused once more on the mind-numbingly boring D-rank. He scowled at the brush as though it had caused him some great offense. If he never had to paint a fence again it would be too soon.

It was still early in the day when they finished with the fence, so their utterly unrepentant sensei set them to one last D-rank for the day. In a rare moment of unity, all three of them glared daggers at Kakashi-sensei's overly gleeful cheer when he explained they were chasing a cat. Like seriously? They were ninja now; what were they doing chasing down lost cats? Tora was a demon, as it turned out. Not a demon like how the civilians called Naruto a demon, but an actual, literal demon. There was no other explanation. He was vicious, too, with claws as sharp as kunai and no hesitation in using them.

After a great deal of misses and acquiring quite the collection of scratches, they lost Tora again amongst the winding streets of Konoha. They decided to split up to cover more ground. Naruto, for one, was thankful to get away from Sakura’s positively volatile temper. It seemed that he and Ino weren’t the only ones able to draw that side of her out.

While scouring everywhere for the Demon Cat, Naruto stumbled upon a part of Konoha he had somehow never been to. What had once been a nice manor house, like some of the clan compounds he had seen glimpses of, was in a state of disrepair and nearly hidden by the overgrown vegetation. Clearly the place had been abandoned for years. That in of itself was strange. His apartment and the whole district it was in were pretty shit, but it was still miles better than this place. This place spoke of a whole other level of neglect.

Stranger still, the building was surrounded by rope with weird little paper tags. They didn’t look like any seal tags he had any experience with. Naruto poked at one curiously and a sick sensation overcame him. Instinctively, he lashed out, disintegrated the entire rope with corrosive Kyuubi chakra.

The breaking of the rope had an immediate effect. Namely, a deep and rather creepy voice calling out, “It has been destroyed. The barrier that once sealed me is no more!”

Naruto jumped into a defensive stance as the ground began rumbling ominously and a strange black mist started pouring out of the broken-down manor before him. He clenched a kunai in one hand and readied a smoke bomb seal in the other. He probably should back off to assess the situation from a distance, but his curiosity got the better of him and he stayed put. Just in case, he used Crow’s little trick to hide himself. It was better than nothing even if he still couldn’t hold it for very long.

The manor doors burst open with the sharp crackle of splintering wood, and Naruto reflexively raised his arm to cover his eyes. All went abruptly still and quiet after that.

Hesitantly, he dropped his arm and looked up. In the now open doorway was an ordinary lucky cat, and no sign of any other living being, human or yokai. Naruto was left puzzling in confusion. This seemed like someone’s idea of a joke. Whose was a mystery since it  _ definitely _ wasn’t his. “Hey what’s the big idea?” Naruto demanded. He addressed the lucky cat for lack of any other audience to vent at. “I thought I was the prankster around here.”

To his astonishment, the lucky cat responded. It exploded into motion, leaping high in the air, a croaky voice emanating from it. “How dare you not quake at the sight of me, impudent human!”

Naruto would later vehemently deny the shriek that came out of his mouth as he reflexively backpedaled. The cat alighted on the ground and went still, for some reason not coming after him despite its outburst. Naruto scowled at it suspiciously. Once he had recovered his wits--and his racing heart had calmed to something approaching normal--he blurted out, “Why do you sound like an old man?”

“Insolent child,” it chided in that same croaky old man voice. It squinted its narrow eyes at him. “You have something that doesn’t belong to you,” it said apropos of nothing. Naruto was sent scrambling for the second time as the cat launched itself at him with a sinister grin. “If I eat you I can take the Kyuubi for myself!”

“Back off!” he yelled. Naruto threw his whole weight into a punch that threw the pig-like cat away from him. “I’m not letting you mess with the Kyuubi. Hinoe said it’s safer for him right where he’s at, so that’s where he’s gonna stay.”

The cat flipped and landed delicately on its toes. There was a strange look in its eyes when it hummed thoughtfully, “Protecting the Kyuubi, huh.”

Naruto squared his shoulders defiantly. It didn’t matter that he’d never spoken to the Bijuu sealed inside of him, that he knew only what bare scraps of information Hinoe had given him. He made a choice and he was going to stick to it. “That’s right! I’m Uzumaki Naruto and I’m the guardian of the Kyuubi. You better believe it, Nyanko.”

“Who are you calling a cat?!” the newly dubbed Nyanko wailed. “This lucky cat’s body is not my true form! My true form is exceedingly elegant. Other ayakashi praise my magnificence and majesty everywhere I go.”

“Really? Well, you look like a cat.”

The yokai--and in hindsight it was obvious that the cat was a yokai--sniffed imperiously and waddled closer until he could jump on top of a squawking Naruto’s head. “I’ll be your bodyguard starting today. You can call me sensei.”

“No way! I don’t need another weird sensei!” Naruto tried to dislodge Nyanko, only subsiding when tiny but sharp claws dug into his scalp.

“Too bad.”

All of Naruto’s huffing and puffing in irritation was brushed off; not even threats of siccing Hinoe on him deterred Nyanko. So, Naruto ignored the not-a-cat as best he could and went back to hunting for Tora. Nyanko only scarpered off when a chance encounter had Tora taking too much of an interest in him. Naruto thought it served him right. At least, until Tora began chasing Nyanko in earnest, which in turn meant it took even longer to catch the demon cat.

The demon cat was delivered to the Hokage and the three exhausted genin were finally released from training. As he was trudging home, Naruto suddenly remembered to dread Hinoe’s reaction to the day’s more unusual events and the fact that he was bringing home a new yokai ‘bodyguard.’ There was no way she was going to let this slide.

* * *

Nyanko-sensei insisted on tagging along with Naruto to training and thus the boy found himself walking to training ground three with the large cat nestled among unruly blonde spikes. The whispers were even more prevalent walking around with a lucky cat on his head that he was arguing with over whether there was time--and whether he had the money to afford it--to stop for food that wasn’t ramen. He paid no mind to them as usual; people could talk all they want, but he didn’t have to let them get to him. One of these days he’d find a way to prove himself to them and the whispers would vanish.

Hinoe had been surprisingly okay with Nyanko-sensei’s presence, proclaiming something about it being easier to keep Naruto out of trouble with him around. As though he hadn’t been doing alright on his own--though truly he appreciated that she cared about his safety. However, her calm acceptance didn’t stop her from ramping up the intensity of her seal training as punishment for recklessness.

“You know, you never told me why you were locked up in that old building,” Naruto said during a lull in their argument. “I mean, what’s the deal with that?”

Nyanko-sensei only harrumphed and side-stepped the question. “There are many complex reasons for that, none of which matter right now. What matters is that you are a jinchuuriki without any idea of how to use that power, which puts you in a great deal of danger. We’ll have to start your training immediately.”

“Aw man,” Naruto groaned, “jinchuuriki training on top of team training and Hinoe’s sealing lessons? When am I going to have time to sleep?”

“Quit your complaining. You have clones to help with sealing and jinchuuriki training is vital. It’s non-negotiable.”

Naruto arrived at the bridge to the training ground that was their team’s meeting spot. As usual, Sasuke and Sakura were already there and looking bored out of their skulls. He shrugged at Sakura’s demands to know about the cat, not caring to even make up a fake reason for why Nyanko-sensei was following him around. Instead, he settled in to wait for their habitually late sensei far enough away that he could quietly chat with the yokai without the other two listening in.

Kakashi-sensei’s abrupt arrival in a swirl of shunshin leaves came as a surprise.

“Sensei, you’re actually on time.” Sakura was gaping at him in shock, and Naruto was right there with her for once. Even Sasuke's typical blank look of apathy was gone, his own surprise evident in his wide eyes.

But their sensei wasn’t paying any attention to them. His singular visible eye was fixed on Nyanko-sensei.


	7. Interlude: Kakashi

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm kind of excited to finally be posting this chapter, because the first part was written some time before this story became what it is (although back then it was a story about Kakashi seeing ghosts, since I'm a sucker for the whole 'I see dead people' thing). It is a little bit shorter, because I couldn't get myself to drag it out any further, but Kakashi's fun to write so I'll see about including more stuff from his pov in the future.

There were many reasons as to why Kakashi had been a solemn child, mature beyond his years. Growing up in a shinobi village, becoming a full-fledged shinobi at the tender age of six, living under the weight of his father’s disgrace and subsequent suicide—those were only half the story.

It hadn’t taken him long to discover that he was different. Not with his bright intellect that was leagues beyond his peers. There were things in this world not understood by humans, hidden from the discerning eyes of even the most elite shinobi. Things that somehow he could see. Even without his father’s explanation it had been easy enough to connect the dots. Meeting Madara merely confirmed what he already knew.

Yokai. Ayakashi. Mononoke. Bakemono. Spirits. No matter which name was used they all referred to the same beings: supernatural creatures that lurked on the fringes of human society. Folklore spoke of them, but only those with the sight believed in their existence.

According to his father, the Hatake clan had been born with the sight since time immemorial. For much of that time they had held a contract with Madara, a well-known and powerful ayakashi. They worshipped him as their patron in return for his protection from other spirits. The clan had dwindled in number over the course of many years and several wars, but so long as one member still lived Madara faithfully held up his end of the bargain.

Which apparently included babysitting a hard-working, prodigious ninja-to-be. Every time Sakumo left Konoha for a mission he entrusted his only son and heir to the care of the great wolf spirit. Yokai were a strange bunch, perhaps Madara most of all. Despite his gruff demeanor and his explicit threats to eat Kakashi if he didn’t behave, he seemed to genuinely care about the last remaining members of the Hatake clan. Most other youkai Kakashi encountered didn’t care much for humans beyond whether or not they could be messed with for fun or whether they would make a good meal.

He was four years old the first time it happened. While training by himself in the hopes of soon joining the academy, some mid-level yokai got the jump on him. He had tired himself out working through basic chakra control exercises his father had shown him—as encouraging as Sakumo was of Kakashi’s rigorous training, even  _ he _ thought better of letting a four-year-old practice jutsus unsupervised—and was thus unprepared for a rather bold and opportunistic yokai to swoop in and try to eat him. Madara’s timely intervention was what saved him in the end. 

That encounter was something of a bonding experience, and the two became nigh inseparable after that. Madara couldn’t follow Kakashi everywhere, seeing as he was a gigantic wolf larger than most buildings could comfortably accommodate, but he stuck close and was extra vigilant about warding off any opportunistic spirits.

It was Madara whom Kakashi turned to after the horror of finding his father’s body, still warm but drained of all life. Madara whom Kakashi felt safe to grieve with. And when Kakashi struggled to open up to his teammates, Madara was there to listen and offer support and terrible advice.

But then Obito died, and it was all Kakashi’s fault. Then Rin. Then Minato-sensei and Kushina, and it seemed he was destined to lose everyone he ever cared for. He decided to save himself further heartbreak by cutting the last tie himself. After everything that had happened and all the losses, he refused to leave himself open to that kind of pain again.

He sealed Madara away in the old Hatake clan compound. It’s not like he could bring himself to live there anymore. And if he subconsciously thought it might help seal away his memories of the past, of happier times and the bitter regrets he was left with, that was just a bonus.

The last Hatake disappeared into ANBU and never looked back.

* * *

Kakashi did not consider himself qualified to deal with children. It was one thing to teach new recruits in ANBU, but it was something else entirely to take on a bunch of baby-faced genin straight out of the academy. Yet once again, the Hokage deemed it appropriate to assign him as a jounin sensei, for all that it was unlikely that any fresh genin would meet his standards, let alone survive past his first test.

Coming face to face with Minato-sensei and Kushina’s legacy after twelve long years of distance was painful. Seeing those blue eyes, just like Minato-sensei’s, framed by blonde hair and seeming to stare straight through him just about made his heart lurch out of his chest. As cowardly as it probably made him, he almost wanted to fail them outright rather than deal with the prospect of interacting with sensei’s kid day in and day out for however long it took for Naruto to attain the rank of chunin.

Regardless of his feelings on that matter though, the council wasn’t giving him a choice this time. After all, someone had to train the last loyal Uchiha, and he was the only one left with any knowledge of how to use the Sharingan. Not to mention the understandable, if overblown in his opinion, concern of the Kyuubi breaking free and wreaking havoc again. That the current jinchuuriki’s identity was Konoha’s worst kept secret certainly didn’t help matters, as any time the boy acted out it was perceived as a threat instead of simply a neglected child begging for attention. All the more reason to place him on a team with the only two people potentially capable of controlling a Bijuu.

And because his hands were tied he was now saddled with three children who would sooner kill each other than work together. The girl, Sakura, was nothing special; below average chakra reserves and no understanding of the realities of being a kunoichi. She cared more about her obsessive puppy-crush than any training. Naruto by all accounts was a dunce. Of course, Kakashi wasn’t sure how much of that to believe considering the seal he had spotted as part of his little prank that first day. The seal was no work of art, but neither was it the work of someone  taught only how to copy the mainstream storage and explosive seals used by Konoha nin . Especially if that someone graduated at the bottom of their class. It made him wonder what else the boy could be hiding behind a goofy smile and childish antics.

The last of the trio, their resident Uchiha, was a problem all his own. Sasuke certainly was a piece of work, with a toxic personality and a dangerous arrogance he could not afford. He was nowhere near strong enough to warrant such an attitude, and even if he was it was not a mindset conducive to learning good teamwork. Kakashi knew that firsthand. Yes, he could see the parallels, and he resolutely pretended he didn’t.

Nothing about the situation was ideal, and frankly Kakashi had no clue what to do about it. So in the end, he just threw the genin at some D-ranks in the hopes that something would click. He could preach about the merits of teamwork all he liked, and the consequences of failing to uphold the values that make Konoha nin so strong, but he couldn’t force true understanding. That was something they’d have to learn on their own. Although he suspected that understanding was a long way off. Something suitably dangerous and possibly traumatizing would have to happen for the three to get over themselves and get with the program.

He somewhat dreaded that moment. In spite of his reluctance to take on the role of a teacher he had no real desire to permanently scar the kids. Even so, they had to grow out of the innocence of childhood sometime, whatever scraps of it were left in Sasuke’s case. They chose to join a dangerous profession, and sooner or later it would come back to bite them. It was inevitable.

The days crawled by one after the next, and nothing changed. When they weren’t bickering or trying to punch each other’s lights out, the three genin stubbornly ignored one another and put only the bare minimum of effort into working together. Dragging them along on a higher level mission was looking more and more necessary, risk of trauma or no.

Another day of training came, and Kakashi debated the merits of sleeping in. His little students were already conditioned to expect him to be hours late, so what was a few more? In the end he heaved himself out of bed with a groan. There was a nagging feeling tugging at his attention, some instinctual awareness that something was amiss. In no time at all he was dressed and ready for the day, mask in place and Icha Icha tucked into the front pocket of his flak jacket. He figured he could do a quick sweep of the village, then check on the team before his daily ritual of visiting the memorial. And he did just that.

Everything in the village was normal, no sign at all of what had pricked his senses. A few quick shunshins brought him to a tree overlooking the bridge near training ground three to see Sasuke and Sakura in perfect health. But the feeling was only growing stronger, and it wasn’t until Naruto’s arrival a few minutes later that he figured out why. Nestled atop the blonde’s head and housed in the body of a lucky cat was a familiar presence that  _ should not be there _ , and Kakashi just about fell from his perch in shock.

After so long of running from his past, fate, it seemed, was forcing him to face it on two fronts. On one hand, he still hadn’t ever talked to Naruto outside the context of training, since conversations were hard and what was he supposed to say anyway? Because ‘I was your father’s student who, by the way, was the Yondaime Hokage’ was obviously out. So was ‘you’re an orphan because I failed to protect your parents.’ On the other hand, there was Madara to deal with, who was no doubt furious about the sealing, and had somehow broken loose from said seal and made his way into the company of his student.

This was not going to be pleasant. Well, it was now or never, and as much as Kakashi would love to vote never, the narrow-eyed look Madara was giving the tree he was still hiding in made it clear  _ that _ wasn’t happening. So, it was time to buck up and  _ talk _ about his problems for once. Taking a deep, bracing breath, he finally shunshined down. He paid no mind to the surprised exclamations, focus primarily fixed on the dangerous yokai in their midst. “Naruto,” he said after determining that the yokai wasn’t likely to wreak havoc as Madara unleashed his wrath upon his person, “we need to have a chat about your new friend there.”


End file.
